This is part 3 in my take on Webelos to Scout transition, this time dealing with the patrol method of scouting. In Boy Scouts, the patrol method is used to teach the boys to work as a team, sharing responsibilities to help achieve success for the patrol. Webelos are not a patrol, they are still a den. But in looking to prepare my den for Boy Scouts, I have incorporated the following ideas from the patrol method.

Identity – at the end of our Bear year, the boys, not me, selected the patrol name and patch they would use as Webelos. A leader in our unit a few years back that chose the name himself, and he missed a great opportunity to let the boys have a say in how the den is run. My den chose the fox patch. As with Boy Scouts, they get to be creative with their name in our pack, so they chose to call themselves the “Cool Foxes”. I even found a stuffed fox on-line that looks like the patrol patch fox! He’s our mascot. Here’s a link to the different patrol patches: http://www.boyscouttrail.com/patrol-patch.asp

Flag – for our flag, I made a flag that looks like the patrol patch they chose. Knowing someone that sews is such a great thing! In hindsight, this might have been a good project to have the boys do, maybe over the summer after we became Webelos.

Patrol Yell – I had the boys come up with a patrol yell, which they wrote at our first campout as Webelos. It’s not fancy but it’s something they created.

Leadership – if you are not using the denner / assistant denner by the time you are Webelos, you need to. It’s an outstanding way to start teaching leadership. Our denner is in charge of opening and closing ceremonies. Now that we are second year Webelos, I tell the boys that I shouldn’t be involved in the opening or closing ceremonies (I am there to help, though). The denner gets other tasks as well throughout his term.

Campout Planning – at the start of our second year as Webelos this past September, we had 4 campout opportunities in the fall: Two in October and two in November. Since I want to only have one a month, I could have chosen one each month and put it on the calendar. But this is a great opportunity to let the boys start choosing what they want to do, as the will be doing in Boy Scouts. So we sat down and voted on which campouts we would go to as a den. They chose one troop/den campout and last weekend’s council-wide Webelos Woods campout.

Cooking/Meal Planning – after becoming Webelos, whenever we have a campout (either den or pack campouts), we use the patrol method for handling meals. The den meeting before the campout the boys choose the menu and set up the duty roster, so all get an opportunity to cook and clean up (and learn the painful lesson that cooks eat last). For meals I pull the boys away from their parents and we cook, eat, and clean up as a group. They will be doing this as Boy Scouts, so hopefully this will get them ready for this aspect of camping.

Tent Sharing – with my older son’s den a few years back, I never had the boys leave their parent’s tent. When we had our first troop/Webelos campout, and the troop ask the boys to form patrols and share tents with another Webelos scout away from their parents, one of the boys in that den freaked out. He had never been away from his parents. It was a lesson to me, with my current den, to try to get the boys out of their parent’s tent, in preparation for Boy Scouts (with the parents permission). We started with our first year as Webelos. We had the Webelos share a tent with each other at a campout, with the parents tenting nearby. One boy couldn’t make it through the night and went to his dad’s tent, which was OK. We keep doing it so they can get over the fear of not being with their parent. I don’t want their first campout in Boy Scouts to have to deal with this.

[A couple of reminders are in order here. You cannot take your den camping until they become Webelos. Before that, you can only go to pack and council campouts. And Webelos camping is still parent-son camping, so a parent needs to attend. And a Webelos can never sleep in a tent of another parent – only his own parent or legal guardian].

These are some of the ways I’ve tried to introduce the patrol method of Boy Scouting to my Webelos den. The hope is that all this will ease their transition into Boy Scouting. If you have any ideas to bring the patrol method into a Webelos den, please post them in the comments. We’d love to hear what you’ve done to get your Webelos ready for Boy Scouts.